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Wearing the signature three-pointed hat of Haman, Rabbi Ethan Bair welcomed members of the Jewish community to Winnick Hillel Center for this year’s celebration of Purim, a holiday to reflect and give back.

Syracuse University’s Hillel took Monday evening to celebrate the beginning of Purim. The story of Purim is told through a book called the Megillah and centers on the triumph of a woman named Esther and her cousin Mordechai over the evil Haman and his plans to persecute the Jewish people. In the story, Haman wanted to find every Jewish person living in Persia and remove them from the land. Hillel’s celebration was a night of storytelling, community service and of course, a good meal.

“Purim is a Jewish holiday of resilience, like so many of our holidays. It’s much more than they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat,” Bair said.

As an inversion to this horrible story, Jewish people are instructed to perform four mitzvot, or acts of kindness, during their celebration of Purim. Bair explained how Jewish people give gifts to members of the community who may be less fortunate.

This year students made blankets to send to Rescue Mission, an organization in central New York that provides food, shelter, clothing and job opportunities for people in the community.

“It’s really important that we have a larger connection to the community of Syracuse, and that we’re able to help facilitate students supporting the city that they live in,” said Ian Solow-Niederman, assistant director of Syracuse Hillel.

Rescue Mission is one of Hillel’s favorite community service partners, Solow-Niderman said. Hillel sends volunteers there at least once a week and Rescue Mission is always thankful for the work that student volunteers do, he said. He said that he hopes students can see that in any Jewish holiday, there is an aspect of community service, which is one of the things that makes these celebrations so special.

Senior Madi Weinnman, who has been going to Hillel events for the last four years, is very passionate about community service and is grateful for the opportunity to connect with people outside of campus. She said she was involved with her Jewish community back home in Buffalo and has loved being involved in the community here.

“Participating in community service is a good opportunity because campus is such a bubble so it’s really nice to be able to connect with the local community, especially because most of us are guests for four years,” Weinnman said.

Freshman Sophie Katz, who helped plan the Purim celebration, wanted to reflect on the themes of overcoming persecution in Purim and the Jewish value of giving back in the blanket-making activity.

“Giving back during a time of celebration and excess and drunkenness is important to remind people of all those aspects of Purim in their life,” Katz said.

In addition to giving back, another important tradition of Purim is that everyone dresses up in costume, Bair said. Throughout the story of Purim, Esther has to change her appearance to not reveal her true Jewish identity. Bair explained that this idea of masking and uncovering one’s identity is expressed through the different outfits that people wear.

Like many other holidays in the Jewish tradition, Purim combines elements of reflecting on the history of the Jewish people and giving back to the larger community. Bair said that joining together as one community is a vital part of Jewish tradition, and he was happy that students were passionate about celebrating their culture.

“I think giving gifts to community members, and giving gifts to the poor certainly strengthens the community, which is what we’re all about at Hillel,” Bair said.

Published on March 6, 2023 at 10:47 pm